Does TV Suck These Days?

[nerd4hire]

This guy makes some points worth considering I think.

It would be nice if something on TV excited me, demanded my full attention. Pushing Daisies has been doing that, but it’s just been cancelled, and so now we’re on the deathwatch for it, counting down the remaining seven episodes to be aired.

And yet the screechingly awful Life on Mars gets an order for more episodes.

I look at a list of the top-rated shows of last week, and I have to wonder, Who the hell watches this stuff? Who can stand to watch this stuff? Dancing with the Stars? The Amazing Race? Game shows. Desperate Housewives? People really watch that? I swear The Mentalist is designed to make stupid people feel smart by telegraphing everything. Eleventh Hour is yet another lifeless, bloodless ripoff from British TV. I can’t even tolerate House anymore, it’s the same old stuff over and over again.

Sci Fi Friday used to be a reliable night of geeking out for me. But Stargate Atlantis has long since squandered whatever potential it might have had, and we’re on deathwatch for that, too. (And what’s this? We’re on track for yet another spinoff of the franchise, Stargate Universe, which they might as well call Stargate Voyager, that’s how boring it promises to be, unless the SG people get a lot more adventurous with the show than they’ve been.) Sanctuary makes me want to scream, it’s so tedious, so been-there-done-that.

The Christmas episode of Doctor Who -- which of course will not air on American TV at all till god knows when -- will be like a tiny oasis in this desert.

Things may improve in early 2009. Battlestar Galactica returns on Friday, January 16... for a handful of episodes before that’s done. Lost returns on Wednesday, January 21. Burn Notice returns at an as-yet unspecified date “this winter” (which is a bit weird -- it seems like such a summer show to me).

Ooo, and Fox will debut Joss Whedon’s sci-fi mindbender Dollhouse on February 13. But wait: That’s a Friday, and Friday night may work on cable, but it’s a dead zone on the broadcast networks, which means Fox is trying to kill it before it even gets started. Which may be a good thing, since Whedon’s been trying to kill it too, it seems.

Why does TV suck so hard these days? Stupid TV: be more entertaining.

FlickFilosopher.com: why does TV suck so much lately?

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

I don't know. I don't actually watch TV, I just rent old shows on DVD 😉
But, I do plan on watching Dollhouse..hope it doesn't get cancelled.

;(

 

[luckystar]

agreed tv is gone downhill completely there is barely a show that gets my attention anymore other than desperate housewives, house, and the l word, i watch more movies than tv but even movies are going downhill, very dissapointed with the cancelling of pushing daisies it was a very unique show, thats sad

 

[Blondie Bear]

I have noticed a decline in the quality of even my favorite shows (House, C.S.I., T:SCC) this season. I actually have to remind myself that these things are on instead of being all excited to see them. House is showing some potential for actual character development on the part of House, but it really is the exact same plot over and over. We can look at the clock and go, "nope, they haven't solved it yet; they've still got 15 minutes." Everybody's leaving C.S.I. (and I'm not sure even Lawrence Fishburne can save it). And for some reason, the plot of SCC just isn't . . . grabbing me.

Now, it could just be me. I've been very very busy and very very tired, and most of the time when 8 PM rolls around and these shows come on, I'm just thinking about going to bed.

If anyone else has any insight, I welcome it.

 

[PurplePoof]

There doesn't seem to be anything on TV anymore that REALLY hooks me, though I suppose a lot of that could be on account of the fact that a lot of the time I just think "meh...I'll wait for the DVDs to come out"...I was a big fan of Pushing Daisies for the first couple of episodes...then realized how much it sucked compared to Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls and just totally didn't grab me. And yes, I'd say TV does suck these days...still entertaining, but there's a profound lack of intelligence.

 

[luckystar]

agreed with the lack of intelligence point as it seems to me that we have a problem with lazy writing its the same thing over and over again, buffy was a hit then we get a whord of vampiric, magic shows etc, er was a hit then along comes greys anatomy house etc, its repeating of whatevers a hit therefore nothing new comes along its just a rehash of what was popular and even when something good comes along like as said pushing daisies, dead like me etc it either gets cancelled or goes downhill with lazy writing, its all bad

 

[PurplePoof]

I agree...being original, unique, creative or innovative on TV these days is basically just ASKING to be cancelled...

 

[4.O.cious Miss]

Re:

I don't know, the only shows that really grasped my attention were Bones (for obvious reasons) and True Blood. I don't really watch anything else.

 

[Blackloliita]

I'm growing up with the shows of "these days", so yeah I'm used to it and don't think it sucks or something.

 

[Relic]

case in point, My own worst Enemy....dismal ratings so I hear, but not a terrible show. it's a one season wonder.

The hour long drama/comedy/whatever seems slim pickings. My must sees are How I Met Your mother and 2 1/2 Men...both half hour shows.

The only one I have been watching and enjoying pretty regularly is Chuck. I keep meaning to check out that new xfiles like show, Fringe, but haven't had the opportunity yet.

In the age of DVR's and seasons on DVD, do any of you think rating expectations are unrealistic? Dancing with the Stars and Idol reel them in. I guess I'm a minority, as I watch neither.

There are a lot of shows i have not watched that i have wanted too, that terminator series for instance and House. I guess i shouldn't weigh in too much on the quality of TV seeing as how my quantity of exposer is limited...but I just don't feel the must see TV like I use to.

 

[Crazy Flakes]

Ugh, I'm growing more and more frustrated with TV these days. HIMYM and Pushing Daisies are good, but their quality is slowly fading (or, in PD's case, WAS slowly fading) and Flight of the Conchords has a new season coming up that I can't wait for. Heroes and The Office are the only other shows I watch, and I'm honestly not sure why I'm still so devoted to them. Heroes' quality has worsened so much over the past two seasons that I mainly just watch it out of habit. There's also the hope that the writers will stop re-using plots and writing the crappiest dialogue ever and finally get back to season 1 quality, but unfortunately, at this point, it seems like that'll never happen (although season 3 is much better than season 2. Then again, that's really not saying much.) As far as The Office goes...well, let me put it this way. Seasons 1 and 2 had me laughing pretty much the entire way through every episode. Season 3 had a lot of episodes like that, too, but there were a few stinkers thrown in. The latest two seasons get about a chuckle every other episode. It's such a shame, too. If the poor writing keeps up, HIMYM will be the only watchable sitcom left on TV.

I'm thinking of watching House again (I watched and loved it for the first two seasons, but just sort of forgot about it after time) and starting to watch True Blood because everyone keeps raving about it and I want another TV show I can look forward to, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[nerd4hire]

At the same time I watched Supernatural last night, and thought this show just keeps getting better, and better. How can they do it, and everything else seems to be getting worse?

 

[Airam]

Hmm, I don't know.... The person that wrote that article seems to be rather biased towards sci/fi type shows so that is not an impartial article in the slightest. As far as the shows I watch, which are all from various genres, I don't have any notable complaints. Even the show thats driving me batshit crazy right now due to a particular storyline, Grey's Anatomy, is still like total crack to me, i CANNOT wait till the next week to find out WTF is going on. Other notably great shows on right now: Lost, Brothers and Sisters, Dexter, The L-Word, Bones... I watch loads others, some guilty pleasures (yes, I do watch Dancing with the Stars) some not, the ones I named though are the top notch ones IMO. There's been alot of canellations recently too. Pushing Daisies I'm sad to say kinda deserved to go...they lost my interest, I loved it like a fat kid loves cake at first, but they've really been missing their potential on that one. I think cancelling My Own Worst Enemy was a HUGE mistake and I'm STILL pissed about it. It was a great concept that they were actually executing brilliantly, I was never not engaged for a second, and Christian Slater was SO good in those roles... UGH! *is bitter*

 

[Randy Giles]

I think TV is pretty good. Desperate Housewives is a good show, as well The Mentalist. The article is definitely biased.

There are plenty of good shows on...although it's disappointing that the better ones are lower rated.

 

[Spuffy78]

It's like Horror it goes through it's stages good and bad.

 

[Blondie Bear]

I have noticed that when Sci-Fi/Fantasy becomes popular, we end up with a whole lot of crap that is inexplicably popular and a few really good shows that nobody (except us geeks) likes. But when it's not, we get one or two really good shows that may or may not gain such a cult following that they stay on the air FOREVER.

 

[ckg927]

That's true with any genre,sci-fi or not. We see a show capture the imagination(if not with the ratings,then definitely with the critics and fans of a show),and sooner or later we see the knock-offs or slight tweaks start to pop up.

I know a few people have mentioned House...and seeing as how I am one of the resident House-aholics on the board,I'd have to agree: plots are getting a bit stale,but the character development is chugging along quite nicely. One of its problems is it's got way too many actors to spread the airtime around with(you've got House and the new 3 ducklings;Cuddy's always going to be around as is Wilson...while Foreman,Cameron & Chase are stuck in the periphery).

Chuck's problem is that there isn't enough time devoted to the main plot and too much devoted to the Buy More gang. I won't miss it to see the BM gang(except Chuck's best bud at BM)get booted out.

 

[Queen Mum]

I find it hard to say, as there is so much to discover an television. Maybe small shows but unique in its way and special. For instance I liked Jericho, even though it was rather cheap in production and stuff like it, but it had a nice general idea, but at the same time lacked character development and depth and surprise. It was all pretty easy to guess. House, I've only seen the first four seasons and the first two episodes of season five and so far it looked rather okay and in a way different and more sadder than all the other episodes. And well be honest, I kinda worked out after the first few episodes, that House normally has to make three guesses before he gets his diagnosis right. But well normally he gets them right, so that isn't the point of the show, but everything else leading up to it. The medicine is just secondary.

However, good signs for televsioin going down hill is Heroes. Basically the second and third season suck. I was surprised that the more historical episode of Heroes ( I think the second last one) was actually great and had the same level of quality like episodes of season 1. It kicked ass, but the newest one just lacked that energy. In some way I find televsion resembles our life time. It is all going down a bit, but I hope it will catch a second breath and give a come back. There are still many good stories to tell.

 

[Airam]

I really feel the need to reiterate how kick ass this season of Heroes is IMO. I like it LEGIONS better than S2 and kinda better than S1 as well. I keep thinking that maybe I was just looking for different things in this show than others were because so many seem to be down on this season. I just think its SO much more interesting now that the characters storylines are constantly overlaping and we have all the characters actually sharing screen time as opposed to every single character having their own storyline that involved only them... maybe I just like ensemble shows and eventhough Heroes supposedly was it didn't really start being a true ensemble show till this season and I'm LOVING IT! And for the record its not just that the actors are finally sharing screentime, THE WAY the are being brought together is uber interesting to me.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

There doesn't seem to be anything on TV anymore that REALLY hooks me, though I suppose a lot of that could be on account of the fact that a lot of the time I just think "meh...I'll wait for the DVDs to come out"...I was a big fan of Pushing Daisies for the first couple of episodes...then realized how much it sucked compared to Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls and just totally didn't grab me. And yes, I'd say TV does suck these days...still entertaining, but there's a profound lack of intelligence.

Very true. I did like Lost, though.
[br][/br]
Edit:
[br][/br]

I'm growing up with the shows of "these days", so yeah I'm used to it and don't think it sucks or something.

It's really cool, though, that you're into Buffy. It doesn't seem like a lot of people your age are. Only because they were so young when it aired 🙂
[br][/br]
Edit:
[br][/br]
I don't know, though. I hope there is hope for Dollhouse...I really do.

Sigh.